Analyzing C++ code quality of Windows Store apps with Visual Studio code analysis

The code analysis tool in Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows 8 examines your code for a set of common problems and violations of good programming practice. Code analysis warnings differ from compiler errors and warnings because code analysis searches for specific code patterns that are valid but could still create issues for you or other people who use your code. Code analysis can also find defects in your code that are difficult to discover through testing. Running the code analysis tool at regular intervals during your development process can enhance the quality of your completed app.

Note

In Visual Studio Ultimate 2012, Visual Studio Premium 2012, and Visual Studio Professional 2012, you can use the full functionality of code analysis. See Analyzing Application Quality by Using Code Analysis Tools in the MSDN Library.

In this topic

You can learn about:

Running code analysis

Analyzing and resolving code analysis warnings

Suppressing code analysis warnings

Searching and filtering code analysis results

C++ code analysis warnings

Running code analysis

To run code analysis on your Visual Studio solution:

• On the Build menu, choose Run Code Analysis on Solution.

To automatically run code analysis each time you build a project:

1. Choose the project name in Solution Explorer and then choose Properties.

2. In the project property page, choose Code Analysis and then choose Enable Code Analysis for C/C++ on Build.

The solution is compiled and code analysis runs. Results appear in the Code Analysis window.

Analyzing and resolving code analysis warnings

To analyze a specific warning, choose the title of the warning in the Code Analysis window. The warning expands to display detailed information about the issue. When possible, code analysis displays the line number and analysis logic that led to the warning.

When you expand a warning, the lines of code that caused the warning are highlighted in the Visual Studio code editor.

After you understand the problem, you can resolve it in your code. Then rerun code analysis to make sure that the warning no longer appears in the Code Analysis window, and that your fix has not raised new warnings.

Tip

You can rerun code analysis from the Code Analysis window. Choose the Analyze button and then choose the scope of the analysis. You can rerun analysis on the entire solution or on a selected project.

Suppressing code analysis warnings

There are times when you might decide not to fix a code analysis warning. You might decide that resolving the warning requires too much recoding in relation to the probability that the issue will arise in any real-world implementation of your code. Or you might believe that the analysis that is used in the warning is inappropriate for the particular context. You can suppress individual warnings so that they no longer appear in the Code Analysis window.

To suppress a warning:

1. If the detailed information is not displayed, expand the title of the warning.

2. Choose the Actions link at the bottom of the warning.

3. Choose to Suppress Message and then choose In Source.

Suppressing a message inserts #pragma(warning:WarningId) that suppresses the warning for the line of code.

Searching and filtering code analysis results

You can search long lists of warning messages and you can filter warnings in multi-project solutions.

C++ code analysis warnings

Code analysis raises the following warnings for C++ code:

Rule	Description
C6001	Using Uninitialized Memory
C6011	Dereferencing Null Pointer
C6029	Use Of Unchecked Value
C6053	Zero Termination From Call
C6059	Bad Concatenation
C6063	Missing String Argument To Format Function
C6064	Missing Integer Argument To Format Function
C6066	Missing Pointer Argument To Format Function
C6067	Missing String Pointer Argument To Format Function
C6101	Returning uninitialized memory
C6200	Index Exceeds Buffer Maximum
C6201	Index Exceeds Stack Buffer Maximum
C6270	Missing Float Argument To Format Function
C6271	Extra Argument To Format Function
C6272	Non-Float Argument To Format Function
C6273	Non-Integer Argumen To Format Function
C6274	Non-Character Argument To Format Function
C6276	Invalid String Cast
C6277	Invalid CreateProcess Call
C6284	Invalid Object Argument To Format Function
C6290	Logical-Not Bitwise-And Precedence
C6291	Logical-Not Bitwise-Or Precedence
C6302	Invalid Character String Argument To Format Function
C6303	Invalid Wide Character String Argument To Format Function
C6305	Mismatched Size And Count Use
C6306	Incorrect Variable Argument Function Call
C6328	Potential Argument Type Mismatch
C6385	Read Overrun
C6386	Write Overrun
C6387	Invalid Parameter Value
C6500	Invalid Attribute Property
C6501	Conflicting Attribute Property Values
C6503	References Cannot Be Null
C6504	Null On Non-Pointer
C6505	MustCheck On Void
C6506	Buffer Size On Non-Pointer Or Array
C6507	Null Mismatch At Dereference Zero
C6508	Write Access On Constant
C6509	Return Used On Precondition
C6510	Null Terminated On Non-Pointer
C6511	MustCheck Must Be Yes Or No
C6513	Element Size Without Buffer Size
C6514	Buffer Size Exceeds Array Size
C6515	Buffer Size On Non-Pointer
C6516	No Properties On Attribute
C6517	Valid Size On Non-Readable Buffer
C6518	Writable Size On Non-Writable Buffer
C6519	Invalid annotation: value of the 'NeedsRelease' property must be Yes or No
C6521	Invalid Size String Dereference
C6522	Invalid Size String Type
C6523	Invalid Size String Parameter
C6525	Invalid Size String Unreachable Location
C6526	Invalid Size String Buffer Type
C6527	Invalid annotation: 'NeedsRelease' property may not be used on values of void type
C6530	Unrecognized Format String Style
C6540	The use of attribute annotations on this function will invalidate all of its existing __declspec annotations
C6551	Invalid size specification: expression not parsable
C6552	Invalid Deref= or Notref=: expression not parsable
C6701	The value is not a valid Yes/No/Maybe value
C6702	The value is not a string value
C6703	The value is not a number
C6704	Unexpected Annotation Expression Error
C6705	Expected number of arguments for annotation does not match actual number of arguments for annotation
C6706	Unexpected Annotation Error for annotation
C28021	The parameter being annotated must be a pointer
C28182	Dereferencing NULL pointer. The pointer contains the same NULL value as another pointer did.
C28202	Illegal reference to non-static member
C28203	Ambiguous reference to class member.
C28205	_Success_ or _On_failure_ used in an illegal context
C28206	Left operand points to a struct, use '->'
C28207	Left operand is a struct, use '.'
C28210	Annotations for the __on_failure context must not be in explicit pre context
C28211	Static context name expected for SAL_context
C28212	Pointer expression expected for annotation
C28213	The _Use_decl_annotations_ annotation must be used to reference, without modification, a prior declaration.
C28214	Attribute parameter names must be p1...p9
C28215	The typefix cannot be applied to a parameter that already has a typefix
C28216	The checkReturn annotation only applies to postconditions for the specific function parameter.
C28217	For function, the number of parameters to annotation does not match that found at file
C28218	For function paramteer, the annotation's parameter does not match that found at file
C28219	Member of enumeration expected for annotation the parameter in the annotation
C28220	Integer expression expected for annotation the parameter in the annotation
C28221	String expression expected for the parameter in the annotation
C28222	__yes, __no, or __maybe expected for annotation
C28223	Did not find expected Token/identifier for annotation, parameter
C28224	Annotation requires parameters
C28225	Did not find the correct number of required parameters in annotation
C28226	Annotation cannot also be a PrimOp (in current declaration)
C28227	Annotation cannot also be a PrimOp (see prior declaration)
C28228	Annotation parameter: cannot use type in annotations
C28229	Annotation does not support parameters
C28230	The type of parameter has no member.
C28231	Annotation is only valid on array
C28232	pre, post, or deref not applied to any annotation
C28233	pre, post, or deref applied to a block
C28234	__at expression does not apply to current function
C28235	The function cannot stand alone as an annotation
C28236	The annotation cannot be used in an expression
C28237	The annotation on parameter is no longer supported
C28238	The annotation on parameter has more than one of value, stringValue, and longValue. Use paramn=xxx
C28239	The annotation on parameter has both value, stringValue, or longValue; and paramn=xxx. Use only paramn=xxx
C28240	The annotation on parameter has param2 but no param1
C28241	The annotation for function on parameter is not recognized
C28243	The annotation for function on parameter requires more dereferences than the actual type annotated allows
C28245	The annotation for function annotates 'this' on a non-member-function
C28246	The parameter annotation for function does not match the type of the parameter
C28250	Inconsistent annotation for function: the prior instance has an error.
C28251	Inconsistent annotation for function: this instance has an error.
C28252	Inconsistent annotation for function: parameter has another annotations on this instance.
C28253	Inconsistent annotation for function: parameter has another annotations on this instance.
C28254	dynamic_cast<>() is not supported in annotations
C28262	A syntax error in the annotation was found in function, for annotation
C28263	A syntax error in a conditional annotation was found for Intrinsic annotation
C28264	Result lists values must be constants.
C28267	A syntax error in the annotations was found annotation in the function.
C28272	The annotation for function, parameter when examining is inconsistent with the function declaration
C28273	For function, the clues are inconsistent with the function declaration
C28275	The parameter to _Macro_value_ is null
C28279	For symbol, a 'begin' was found without a matching 'end'
C28280	For symbol, an 'end' was found without a matching 'begin'
C28282	Format Strings must be in preconditions
C28285	For function, syntax error in parameter
C28286	For function, syntax error near the end
C28287	For function, syntax Error in _At_() annotation (unrecognized parameter name)
C28288	For function, syntax Error in _At_() annotation (invalid parameter name)
C28289	For function: ReadableTo or WritableTo did not have a limit-spec as a parameter
C28290	the annotation for function contains more Externals than the actual number of parameters
C28291	post null/notnull at deref level 0 is meaningless for function.
C28300	Expression operands of incompatible types for operator
C28301	No annotations for first declaration of function.
C28302	An extra _Deref_ operator was found on annotation.
C28303	An ambiguous _Deref_ operator was found on annotation.
C28304	An improperly placed _Notref_ operator was found applied to token.
C28305	An error while parsing a token was discovered.
C28350	The annotation describes a situation that is not conditionally applicable.
C28351	The annotation describes where a dynamic value (a variable) cannot be used in the condition.